In the wake of the invasion, uncertainty and tension saw the latter push up to a price of $120 per barrel, and this period was followed by a spate of sanctions against Russia – chiefly targeting oil, gas and coal – from the United States, Canada, the European Union and other Western entities.

(This tendency has continued too, with the EU this week signing off on its 16th sanction package, which includes bans on the provision of services and technology that could facilitate completion of Russian LNG or crude oil products.)

In a general sense, the war prompted conversations about the need for countries to ensure their supply chains are both strong and diversified.

This is then augmented by the headwinds from recent U.S. tariff policies.

But Donald Trump’s recent interventions in international diplomacy concerning the war have introduced another topic into the chat: Ukraine’s richness in critical minerals, which the U.S. President wants to get his hands on.

The idea echoes early pronouncements from Trump that the States could acquire Greenland, an autonomous territory in the kingdom of Denmark rich in uranium, rare earth minerals, and iron ore.

After that, he moved his sights to the benefits that could be yielded from Ukraine in return for U.S. military aid. Initially, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected a proposal that would have handed over half of the country’s critical mineral assets to the United States.

But after meetings which began over the weekend, it appears that Ukraine’s leaders have agreed to a deal which would enable the joint development of the country’s assets in return for strengthened relations with, and military support from, the United States.

According to media reports, the deal is set to be formalised on Friday, with Zelenskyy planning to fly to Washington for this purpose.

For much of its history, Ukraine was known for its contribution to agriculture: Unsurprisingly, given it accounts for a third of the globe’s most fertile land, with wheat, maize, and sunflower oil being some of its main exports in this sector.

But the country also holds 5% of the world’s mineral resources, including 20,000 deposits of 116 different types, of which only 15% (or 3,055) were active. Of the active deposits, 147 were metallic; 4,676 non-metallic.

More specifically, Ukraine has been noted for its supply of rare earth metals, titanium, lithium, beryllium, manganese, gallium, uranium, zirconium, graphite, apatite, fluorite, and nickel.

Titanium – a metal essential for the aerospace, medical, automotive and marine industries – is a particularly attractive commodity for the U.S., and Ukraine holds the world’s largest reserves and was a key supplier to the military sector before the invasion began.

Alongside this is lithium – a commodity whose fortune has fluctuated in recent years, as oversupply in China led to a price plunge, although this is a situation expected to correct itself in the next year or so, as supply wanes again.

Ukraine is home to one of Europe’s biggest confirmed reserves of the metal (at an estimate of 500,000 tonnes), including the Shevchenkivske field and the Kruta Balka block.

Since these are in regions close to the conflict – Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia respectively – their exploitation has not been possible for several years.

The country is also the fifth largest producer of gallium – an increasingly sought-after metal, whose price rose significantly last December due to Chinese export restrictions – in addition to supplying 90% of neon gas which is essential to the U.S. chip industry.

As nations vie to secure the materials critical for the ‘electrification of the globe’ and clean energy transition, Trump’s intentions in Eastern Europe may be ethically questionable, but not surprising.

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On Tuesday, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced it would be banning the export of a suite of critical minerals – including gallium, germanium and antimony – to the US. These three are minerals key to the manufacture of multiple products, from military equipment to semiconductors, as well as having a general industrial purpose.

The announcement was both a ramp-up of Beijing’s previous restrictions on commodities central to the tech industry, but also a response to Washington’s decision the previous day to add to its restrictions on the export of advanced chips to China.

In terms of the former, one can track back to October 2023, when China placed tight regulations on the sale of graphite products, which play a central role in the manufacture of car batteries. This followed an announcement in July of that year, that exporters from the country would have to apply for special licences to export gallium and germanium to the United States.

Regarding the latter, we have the US government’s announcement on Monday that they would add to restrictions on chip-making equipment going to China, including the export of high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips – which play a key role in high-end applications such as AI training – plus 24 other chipmaking tools and three software tools.

Shipments of chipmaking equipment from Singapore and Malaysia to the US were also restricted, and Washington added140 Chinese companies to a list of those banned from trading with US firms.

US officials said their goal was to hinder China’s development of advanced AI, and weaken its production capabilities in relation to semiconductors used for high-tech products.

The latest series of explosions in the ‘tech war’ between the two countries has the potential to seriously disrupt the supply chain for critical minerals, impacting Australian-listed companies which are building their businesses around critical minerals products.

This includes Golden Deeps Ltd (ASX:GED), which since 2023 has been exploring the potential for high-grade gallium and germanium at its Nosib discovery in Namibia, and Battery Age Minerals Ltd (ASX:BM8), which is seeking germanium (as well as lead and zinc) at its Bleiberg project in Austria.

It remains to be seen where the tech war may go.

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Impact has been undertaking this project in conjunction with CPC Engineering and Edith Cowan University’s Mineral Recovery Research Centre (MRRC), built around the deposit – located 500 kilometres east of Perth.

The Federal government awarded the grant under the umbrella of its Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) program, reflecting among other things the designation of HPA as a critical mineral for Australia (as well as the U.S. and Europe).

This funding is part of a wider $6.4M research and development project anticipated for completion within three years; its resulting information will be plugged into Impact’s definitive feasibility study (DFS) for Lake Hope.

Impact managing director Dr Mike Jones thanked Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic and said that receiving the grant was a reflection of the project’s value.

“We are immensely proud to drive this transformative project, which aligns with and advances Australia’s strategic interests in critical minerals,” he said.

“We thank Minister Husic for his personal interest in the project as this federal funding not only underscores the national importance of our work but also enhances our capability to implement world-leading technologies that set new standards in sustainability and efficiency in the mineral sector.”

Impact shares rose on the news, and at 15:57 AEST, they were trading at 1.3 cents – a rise of 8.33% since the market opened.

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Altech said the prototype had been installed at the test laboratory of its joint venture partner – Fraunhofer IKTs – located in Dresden, and integrated into a custom-built battery test station, where it was already outperforming initial expectations.

In particular, it had shown the ability to maintain excellent thermal stability, a crucial factor in high-capacity energy storage systems.

According to the battery test station setup, daily charging and discharging cycles are facilitated to check the battery’s efficiency, stability and overall performance under real-world conditions.

Altech CEO and managing director Iggy Tan said getting the prototype into operation was an important milestone.

“We are extremely pleased that the first CERENERGY® 60kWh battery prototype is now up and running and operating better than expected, reconfirming our confidence in the sodium-chloride solid-state battery technology developed by the world-leading Fraunhofer Institute in Germany,” he said.

“Using common table salt technology and without the requirement for lithium, copper, cobalt, graphite and manganese, the CERENERGY® battery can operate in a wide range of temperatures and has a life of 15 years, around double that of lithium-ion batteries.

“The prototype can now be demonstrated under real-world conditions, providing critical data for off-take parties. This will be invaluable as Altech pushes forward with sales and finance to construct the first 120MWh plant.

“With the first Letter of Intent for 30MWh of offtake with Schwarze Pumpe Industrial Parkrecently announced, we envisage that having the CERENERGY® 60kWh battery prototype up and running and exceeding expectations, will further assist in the offtake process.”

Altech has been trading at 3.8 cents.

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The event wound up at the end of last week after two days of high-calibre guest speakers addressing company leaders and investors.

Organiser, Spire Events, Managing Director Daniel Radziszewski spoke with The Market Herald as the event wound up at the Novotel Langley Hotel.

He said delegates had travelled from Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, with representatives from Canada and Indonesia.

Speakers included: Geological Survey of South Australia Acting Director Dr Bronwyn Camac; London Metal Exchange Lithium Committee chair Ron Mitchell; Clean Energy Finance Corporation WA and resources head Rob Wilson; Critical Minerals Office Rare Earth Elements Magnets assistant manager Michael Neimanis; and, Petra Commodities Asia Founder and CEO Alberto Migliucci.

“I would like to invite everyone to join us again in 2024 here in Perth, and, in Brisbane, we will be launching a new event in the first half of the year,” Mr Radziszewski said.

“So stay tuned, more details to come.”